Newly ranked Rams butt heads with Aztecs

Fort Collins, CO (Sports Network) - Nationally ranked by the Associated Press
for the first time since 1954, the Colorado State Rams are set to battle with
the San Diego State Aztecs in a Mountain West Conference showdown at Moby
Arena on Wednesday night.

The Rams, currently second in the MWC standings with a record of 6-2, have won
four straight outings overall thanks to a 73-69 triumph over Nevada a week ago
on the road. When it comes to playing at home in Fort Collins, the Rams have
not experienced defeat in quite some time, rattling off a school-record 26
straight victories dating back to November of 2011 when the team was beaten,
ironically enough, by Southern Miss and head coach Larry Eustachy who is now
the head man with CSU.

Meanwhile, the Aztecs are a squad that was considered one of the leaders in
the conference heading into the 2012-13 campaign and while the team's strong
opening to the schedule seemed to prove that, there have been a few bumps in
the road when it comes to league outings.

However, over the weekend SDSU did deliver another masterful performance
against Fresno State, 75-53, the team's second straight win and the fourth in
the last five contests, not to mention the 33rd straight triumph over an
opponent from the state of California.

Colorado State dropped the first meeting of the season with the Aztecs by a
final of 79-72 in overtime, albeit after battling back from an 18-point
deficit at halftime. Despite the loss, the Rams still own a slight advantage
in the all-time series with SDSU, 36-34.

For the third time in the last four victories the Aztecs defeated a foe by at
least 21 points as they crushed visiting Fresno State by 22 at Viejas Arena on
Saturday. Jamaal Franklin was a big part of that success as he recorded 14
points and a game-high 11 rebounds as he reached both 1,000 points and 500
rebounds for his career in the process. James Rahon chipped in 14 points as
well and Winston Shepard pitched in with 10 points off the bench as the team
held the visitors to a paltry 29.3 percent shooting from the floor.

A candidate for player of the year honors in the MWC, Franklin has been a
steady influence for the program this season with his 17.5 points and 9.5
rebounds per contest. As someone who has made almost twice as many free throws
(129-of-166) as any of his teammates has even attempted through 23 games,
Franklin is much more of a force in the paint rather than out on the perimeter
where he is shooting only 26.2 percent at the moment. Chase Tapley checks in
with 13.6 ppg as he helps to give the squad a presence on the outside with his
47 triples through 22 appearances.

Excluding Pierce Hornung who played just three minutes due to illness, the
starters for the Rams were the reason why the team was able to get by Nevada
on the road the last time out. Greg Smith put together a double-double with a
career-high 28 points and 12 rebounds, as did Colton Iverson as he tallied 10
points and cleared a career-high 16 boards in Reno. Wes Eikmeier and Dorian
Green both tallied 11 points in a game that experienced 12 ties and eight lead
changes.

The defense for the Rams has been claiming much of the attention this season,
particularly in conference action with the group holding league foes to just
37.4 percent shooting from the floor and 60.1 ppg. The effort on the glass has
been extraordinary with CSU beating the competition by more than 13 rebounds
per contest, thanks to Iverson who is averaging 11.1 rpg to go along with 12.1
ppg. Sharing the responsibility on offense are Eikmeier (13.9 ppg), Green
(12.5 ppg) and Smith (10.9 ppg) who have this program humming along unlike any
version in the last six decades.